Phil, I've examined sprite synchros. They are essentially pure bronze/brass/
whatever. The friction surfaced are raised and ridged when new, and slowly
get smoothed down by wear. They are not made of more than one material.
Locking in first gear is probably excessive wear of the the 1st/2nd gear fork.
this is the brass fork that pushes the gears around. Improper adjustment or
holding the gearshift while driving (or worse yet, applying pressure) or lack
of lubricant will cause this to wear. I once totally wore through one, leaving
it stuck in third gear (I was in 4th, and it kept jumping into neutral, so I
held it in. Oops. This was about 1 year after I got my first sprite.)
It might have also been a ball, spring, or fork rod. The rods have detents
to hold them in the right positions in (or out) of gear. I've never seen any
real wear in those, though.
Randell
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